When I mention contractions, I am not referring to ladies in childbirth nor my hubby whose muscles contract at the mere thought of pulling out his wallet at the mention of a new designer handbag. I am talking, of course, about two words that are combined and certain letters omitted. We put an apostrophe where the letter or letters have become verbally redundant. Contrary to popular belief, they are not just thrown randomly in the general direction of the word.
Punctuation mark
An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that is used to either clarify contraction or designate possession. I will deal with possession in a future blog.
After leaving college I worked for many years as a PA at director level and completed all of my RSA secretarial qualifications. Therefore, most of my composition experience was using formal language in which you hardly ever use contractions. I have since found that I feel uncomfortable using contractions in personal correspondence. To be perfectly honest I am not a great lover of contractions, because they often confuse. I admit to using them in speech in informal situations but find myself unwilling to use them in my writing, which robs my correspondence of nuance and restricts my ability to change mood.
Therefore, it is a good idea for any writer to master and understand appropriate use of contractions in order to better express changes in tone. This is especially true when writing dialogue or reported speech.
Word contraction in English can be traced back to the runic alphabet of Old English in the seventh century. They contracted words such as is not, so I guess it is their fault the horror of the word isn’t, which is often turned into ain’t.
Here are the most notorious contractions in use today and if you think I have missed any, please drop me a line.
- Aren’t = are not
- Can’t = cannot
- Couldn’t = could not
- Didn’t = did not
- Doesn’t = does not
- Don’t = do not
- Hadn’t = had not
- Hasn’t = has not
- Haven’t = have not
- He’d = he had or he would
- He’ll = he will or he shall
- He’s = he is or he has
- I’d = I had or I would
- I’ll = I will or I shall
- I’m = I am
- I’ve = I have
- Isn’t = is not
- It’s = it is
- It’ll = it will
- Let’s = let us
- Mightn’t = might not
- Mustn’t = must not
- Shan’t = shall not
- She’d = she had or she would
- She’ll = she will or she shall
- She’s = she is or she has
- Shouldn’t = should not
- That’s = that is or that has
- There’s = there is or there has
- They’d = they had or they would
- They’ll = they will or they shall
- They’re = they are
- They’ve = they have
- We’d = we had or we would
- We’re = we are
- We’ve = we have
- Weren’t = were not
- What’ll = what will or what shall
- What’re = what are
- What’s = what is or what has
- What’ve = what have
- Where’s = where is or where has
- Who’d = who had or who would
- Who’ll = who will or who shall
- Who’re = who are
- Who’ve = who have
- Won’t = will not
- Wouldn’t = would not
- You’d = you had or you would
- You’ll = you will or you shall
- You’re = you are
- You’ve = you have
Put yourself to the test:
Rewrite the following sentences using contractions where you can:
- It is frowned upon to use contractions in formal writing, so do not do it.
- The food she had ordered was not at all like it looked on the menu.
- I would love to go to the cinema with you, but I have got to work late.
- What shall we do this weekend as we have not got a lot of money.
- You might not like this quiz, but let us pretend that you do.
Rewrite the following sentences replacing the contractions with the words in full:
- He’d have bought that car, but he’d just lost his job.
- I couldn’t be bothered to finish this quiz it’s too hard, so I’ll wait for the answers tomorrow.
- I shan’t object if you get offered the promotion over me.
- You won’t want your dinner that I’m cooking if you carry on eating sweets.
- Where’s Jack now and where’s he been all morning?
Leave your answers in the comments.